Repeat after me: "C ... L ... O ... S ... E ... D ..."

[Pixilated]

So we're back to pre-Christmas hours, yay! On Tuesday this meant we closed at 5 p.m. We wheeled all our signs and little display thingies back into the shop and pulled the metal gate across the front of the store (we can't lock it from the inside, or we're stuck in there until somebody shows up next day with a key ... )

Ass't. mgr. was busy counting out the till when a customer stuck her head in through the closed-but-not-locked gate. This is TEN minutes after we officially closed.

Clueless Customer: "Hi, um, I'm wondering if I can just come in to buy one thing ..."

Me: "No, I'm sorry, we're closed."

CC: "I can't come in just for a minute? I just need one thing."

Me: "No, I'm sorry, we're closed."

CC: "I just want to get some teabags ..."

Me: "I'm sorry, we've shut the system down [some days I thank all the retail gods for the introduction of electronics into retail ...] and we can't restart it. We'll be open at 10 a.m. tomorrow."

CC finally gives up and goes away, presumably to suffer through the night without teabags.

[Lace Neil Singer]

This really bugs me. They presumably realised that they'd run out of the item way before, right? So what the fuck were they doing all day that meant that buying the item had to wait until after closing time?

I always get annoyed with people who come into the petrol station at five minutes to close to get petrol. Might just be me, but I never ever go to shops when they're just about to close. Then again, I grew up in a village where if you pissed off the shopkeepers, they wouldn't save bread for you when the place got snowed up. XD

[raudf]

I've had to pull the "register system has already shut down and won't allow us to boot it back up until tomorrow at opening" spiel, as I was headed out the door, with Dad, who was locking the door behind us. Yeah, all signs point to "Closed," but someone has to ask the extremely obvious question.

[Dreamstalker]

Me: "I'm sorry, we've shut the system down [some days I thank all the retail gods for the introduction of electronics into retail ...] and we can't restart it. We'll be open at 10 a.m. tomorrow."

CC finally gives up and goes away, presumably to suffer through the night without teabags.

But tea is srs bizness

I wish we could do that. The lights are on a timer (not sure if it's located in the store or at Corporate), so why not the registers?

[Catwoman2965]

Ugh. you've just hit on my pet peeve. We had a couple stragglers last night; our normal closing hours are 9pm, but since it was a holiday, we closed at 5. We are also not allowed to TELL customers hey, we are closing, get out. in any way, shape, or form.

I joked wouldn't it be nice if we had an airhorn we could blow at 5 minutes to closing, to get them out. Sadly, I don't think corporate would appreciate that!

[Food Lady]

Aren't there 24-hr grocery stores that carry tea? If she needs it that badly....

[greensinestro]

Publix puts a sign up about how they're closing early on Christmas Eve (usually 6pm), yet you always have someone outside banging on the doors for that can of Who Hash they forgot to get. And it's bad when the manager does not lock the doors immediately since some asswipe will force the doors open and come on in. I recall that from my days there.

[Pixilated]

There's certainly one that I know of in this city, but she was looking for DIY teabags ... and they are not easily found.

I wouldn't even mind the late-comers so much except for the fact that I can just see it ... "Sure, come in and buy your ONE THING ..." and then they see all the 'On Sale!' signs and half an hour later they're still browsing. Apparently we had somebody do that just the night before.

I don't think we're allowed to say "We're closing in 10 minutes" or anything similar, but once we start rolling the display cases back into the store ... and once we pull the gate across .. most people get the message.

[wolfie]

Publix puts a sign up about how they're closing early on Christmas Eve (usually 6pm), yet you always have someone outside banging on the doors for that can of Who Hash they forgot to get.

Of course, the worst SCs are those who come in at closing time to get the Beast for roasting, and get ticked off that not only won't you let them in, but that even if you did, you've been sold out of Beast for over a week. You RUINED CHRISTMAS because you didn't anticipate THEIR lack of planning and hold back a Beast to sell them at closing time on Christmas Eve.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Publix puts a sign up about how they're closing early on Christmas Eve (usually 6pm), yet you always have someone outside banging on the doors for that can of Who Hash they forgot to get. And it's bad when the manager does not lock the doors immediately since some asswipe will force the doors open and come on in. I recall that from my days there.

So does the Litter Box, and every year we have at least one who cannot grasp the concept of closing early.

Blondie (Grocery Mgr) told me that somebody was banging on the front doors about 6:30 Christmas Eve (we closed at 6) and got mad b/c we'd already closed.

Nevermind that we had signs up at each entrance for 2 weeks prior and it was clearly stated on the front page of that week's ad flyer.

Christmas is on the same day on the calendar every year, folks. Your failure to plan ahead is not my problem.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Seriously, you could have a giant neon pink sign with lime green writing saying "Closed", surrounded by dancing bears and a troup of majorettes marching along singing, "We are closed!" ... and customers would STILL not get it.

[siskaren]

Christmas is on the same day on the calendar every year, folks. Your failure to plan ahead is not my problem.

Not only that, but 6:00 is a pretty common closing time on Christmas Eve.

[The_Cook]

Seems to me there's a saying about leading a horse to water. And just like Lace Neil Singer mentioned, you could have all the bells and whistles, but people wouldn't get it. At your own risk you could try using the line I used tonight, "Oh, I'm just robbing the place."

[raudf]

As hubs once said about the "No Food or Drink" sign at the arcade... you could create one that was big enough to bash them in the head as they entered, paint it in day-glo colors, light it up with neons, have it hoot, and they still wouldn't "see" it. And if they did see it, they'd just ignore it anyways.

[CrappyToHelp]

Then again, I grew up in a village where if you pissed off the shopkeepers, they wouldn't save bread for you when the place got snowed up. XD

Are you Northern? This strikes me as a very Northern thing to do.

OT: When I was on Music & Video, when we closed on Sundays at 4PM, people would continually ask us for stuff. We eventually began sitting in the back from 4PM to half four so we could ignore them.

Also, over the tannoy I would hear stuff like.

"Customer Announcement: We'd like to draw your attention to the fact that the time is now half past four and your [name] store has been closed for half an hour. We know you love us, but it is time for you to go home. We open again at 8AM tomorrow so you can come and see us again then. Please make your way to the checkouts immediately."